Among cancer, pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and devastating human malignancies. Its aggressiveness is illustrated by the fact that the number of estimated pancreatic cancer cases and number of pancreatic cancer-related deaths are almost identical with a minimal 5-year survival rate of 2%. Pancreatic cancer ranks at the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Western countries. So far, neither early detection nor treatment of advanced disease is possible: 85% of lesions are unresectable at the time of diagnosis, resulting in a median survival time of 4-5 months.
These dismal statistics are mainly consistent with the propensity of these tumors to metastasize when small and undetectable, and the intrinsic resistance of pancreatic cancer cells to cytotoxic agents and radiotherapy.
As another aggressive cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (hepatocarcinoma, HCC) is the most common primary malignancy of the liver and the fourth most common cancer worldwide with an incidence of 1,000,000 new cases per year. It represents the 3rd cause of death by cancer in the world. In France, as in other industrialized countries, its incidence is rising steadily due to the hepatitis C virus pandemic. HCC develops from cirrhosis: the 5-year probability for cirrhotic patients to develop HCC is almost 20%. The three main curative therapeutic modalities currently used for HCC are hepatic resection, percutaneous destruction of the tumor (radiofrequency) and orthotopic liver transplantation. These options may be used in patients with so called <<small>> HCC (<5 cm) with good results (70% 5 year survival and <25% recurrence rate for transplantation). Unfortunately, such therapeutic options are only accessible to less than 50% of the patients diagnosed with HCC. Therefore, the bulk of patients cannot benefit from curative therapeutic options because of large tumor size or underlying liver disease. For these reasons, new diagnosis modalities and therapies are needed. Up to now, no chemotherapy is efficient and thus indicated in HCC.
Consequently, there is an urgent need for therapies to treat cancer, like pancreatic cancer or hepatocellular cancer, and metastatic cancer specifically, that are more effective than current regimens.